Welcome to my webpage!

My name is Elsa Voytas.

I am a Research Scientist at Meta. Before Meta, I was an assistant professor of Quantitative Social Science at Dartmouth College and Political Science at IE University. My research examines how experiencing, remembering, and confronting past violence influences contemporary political decisions. I apply a range of methodological techniques, including field and survey experiments, causal inference, focus groups, and interviews, to ask how societies can advance social justice and build peace. As an instructor, I teach courses on quantitative methods and peace, justice, and conflict resolution.

You can find my CV here.

Photo by Katie Lenhart.

Research

Publications

Balcells, Laia, Valeria Palanza, and Elsa Voytas.* 2022. "Do transitional justice museums persuade visitors? Evidence from a field experiment." The Journal of Politics.

Balcells, Laia and Elsa Voytas.* 2023. "What difference do museums make?" In The Oxford Handbook of Transitional Justice , edited by Jens Meierhenrich, Alexander Laban Hinton and Lawrence Douglas.

Voytas, Elsa and Benjamin Crisman. 2023. "State Violence and Participation in Transitional Justice: Evidence from Colombia." The Journal of Peace Research.

Balcells, Laia, Olwen Purdue, and Elsa Voytas.* 2024. "Remembering the past in ethnically divided societies." Accepted for publication at Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. Included in the Special Issue "Conflict and Peace: The cultural dimension", edited by Giuditta Fontana.

Under Review

"More than money: the political consequences of reparations." Conditionally accepted.

"The Troubles and Beyond. The Impact of a Museum Exhibit in a Post-Conflict Society" (with Laia Balcells). Revise & resubmit.

"Shades of justice: victim responses to apology and punishment" (with Sarah Z. Daly).

"From Black Wall Street to Reparations: Racial justice museums and political change" (with Chaya Crowder).

"Communitarian appeals increase opposition to violent extremism: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh" (with Jason Lyall and Brendan Nyhan).

"The Anti-Left Legacy of the Pinochet Dictatorship" (with Pablo Argote).

Working Papers

"Historical Narratives and Political Behavior in the US" (with Diego Ramos-Toro).

"Public Support for Post-Harm Compensation After Drone Strikes: A Cross-National Experiment" (with Jason Lyall).

* denotes equal authorship (listed alphabetically).

Teaching

Instructor of Record

  • Quantitative Approaches to Peace and Justice. Dartmouth College. Winter 2024.
  • Introduction to Data Analysis. Dartmouth College. Fall 2023
  • Peace and Conflict Resolution. IE University. Spring 2023.
  • Research Methods in International Relations. IE University. Fall 2022.
  • Quantitative Approaches to Peace and Justice. Dartmouth College. Fall 2021.
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics. Rider University. Fall 2020.

    • Teaching Assistant

  • Human Rights. Princeton University. Spring 2020. Instructor: Gary Bass.
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics. Princeton University. Fall 2018. Instructor: Alisha Holland.
  • Introduction to Quantitative Social Science. Princeton University. Fall 2017. Instructors: Marc Ratkovic and Matt Salganik.

CV

Click here to view my CV.